Composer Jonathan Berger
creates theme music for Clark Center

BY CZERNE M. REID

Music for the Dedication of the Clark Center is
a three-part work by composer Jonathan Berger, an associate
professor of music. The piece was created in honor of the center's
Oct. 24 grand opening and embodies the spirit of Bio-X, according
to Berger.

"When Matthew Scott, the Bio-X program chair, commissioned the
music, he described the building as a place in which
cross-pollination of ideas and research would be inevitable,"
Berger said. Accordingly, he brought together disparate sound
sources to create the multi-faceted composition. Some of the music
comes from Berger's research using sound to represent and interpret
complex biochemical data. Another element is the work of a former
doctoral student, Tamara Smyth, who generated sounds by computer
modeling of a bird's voice box. The piece also incorporates
stringed musical instruments.

The
first part of the composition combines brushed cymbals and bird
sounds that will be piped around the outside balconies of the Clark
Center during a pre-ceremony tour of the building. The second part
is a very brief percussive sound sequence that will herald the
beginning of the ceremony. "I hope that this sequence will become a
sort of 'sound icon' of Bio-X," Berger said.

"Fanfare," the main section of the composition, will
officially open the ceremony. It will be performed by the St.
Lawrence String Quartet, the university's ensemble in residence,
accompanied by birdlike and percussive computer sounds.

But
Berger's music is more than merriment. It may form the basis of new
medical diagnostic tools for early detection and intervention where
visual methods fall short. "There are cases when you can hear
profound but subtle changes that you can't see, so there are
probably certain instances where it will offer possibility where
none exists," explained Berger, a Bio-X affiliate
himself.

Berger's work is based on a technique known as sonification,
in which sound is used to represent complex data in simple ways.
Familiar applications of sonification include the ringing of an
alarm clock, the tone of a flat line on a heart monitor and
assistive technologies, such as beeping sidewalks. "The idea of
sonifying the world for blind people has really made me stop and
think," Berger said.

Hyperspectral images of colon cells,
like the ones above, can be digitized to turn data into music.
Photo courtesy of Mauro
Maggioni.

The
computer is the chief tool in sonification research. In the Bio-X
dedication piece, for example, Berger used high-resolution images
of colon cells embedded with detailed data on their chemistry and
structure. A software tool links the images and their underlying
data to various properties of sound. Moving a cursor over the image
produces sounds that vary for cells in different chemical states.
Sonification can be used in this way to reveal auditory differences
between healthy and diseased colon cells, Berger
explained.

The
stethoscope and the auto mechanic's language of pings and knocks
serve as examples in which a defined set of sounds is used for
simple and reliable diagnosis, he said, adding: "The stethoscope is
an incredibly arcane object. It is amazing that physicians still
rely on it because it is the lowest tech thing they carry, [yet it
is] the most reliable thing they carry."

Although Berger describes sonification as an emerging
technology, the concept dates back to the 17th century, when German
astronomer Johannes Kepler used the principles of musical harmony
to describe planetary orbits around the sun. But according to
Berger, biomedical applications of sonification "have a ways to go.
We are clearly hearing different chemistries but are not yet able
to harness it into a musical language that is as easy to define as
a ping, a knock, a rattle, a click, a clack."

For
Berger, the next challenge is to develop a set of tools for routine
medical analysis. "Our goal is to provide new medical listening
tools to assist physicians in interpreting the massive data
generated by current and emerging medical imaging techniques," he
said. "We hope to reinvent the stethoscope."

Czerne M. Reid is a science-writing intern with the
Stanford News Service.